This document discusses using dates and numbers tables to provide precalculated information that facilitates algorithms and enables set-based logic in queries. It provides examples of how dates and numbers tables can be used to group data by date periods, join dates with no data, and calculate metrics per time period. It also explains how to build these tables by precalculating fields like day of week and month from raw dates, and numbering for ranges of numbers.

1. Power and Simplicity with
Numbers and Dates
Tables
Adolfo J. Socorro, Ph.D.
@AdolfoSocorro
eSolutions, Inc.

2. Agenda
• What are dates and numbers tables?
• Examples of queries with dates and numbers tables
• How to build dates and numbers tables

3. Today: February 27, 2014
Raw Date (Date Key) 20140227
MM/DD/YYYY 02/27/2014
DD/MM/YYYY 27/02/2014
Day Name Thursday
Day Number 27
Day Number of Week 5
Day Number of Year 58

4. Today: February 27, 2014
Month Name February
Month Number of Year 2
Is Last Day of Month No
Is First Day of Quarter No
Is Last Day of Quarter No

5. Today: February 27, 2014
Is State Holiday No
Is Federal Holiday No
Calendar Quarter 1
Calendar Year 2014
Fiscal Quarter 3
Fiscal Year 2013

6. Grouping by Calendar Date Periods

7. Grouping by Fiscal Year Periods

8. Grouping by “Program Year”

9. What’s a Dates Table for?
Provides
Precalculated
Information
Facilitates
Algorithms
Enables
Set-based
Logic

10. Clients Served by Fiscal Quarter and Year

11. Dates with Sales
New requirement:
show all dates.

12. Dates with No Sales
L
E
F
T
J
O
I
N
Dates Sales

13. Opened vs. Closed Observations per Day

14. Opened vs. Closed Observations per Day
Dates Opened Closed

15. PR PASS Meetings for 2014
January
• 30 (1)
• 23 (2)
• …
February
• 27 (1)
• 20 (2)
• …
March
• 27 (1)
• 20 (2)
• …
1. Get all the Thursdays in 2014 that are not holidays
2. Partition them by month
3. Order descending
4. Take the first one

16. Sum of Sales per Fiscal Quarter and Year

17. Creating a Dates Table

18. Set the Holidays
New Year’s Day
• January 1
Independence
Day
• July 4
MLK, Jr.
• 3rd Monday in
January (since 1983)
Thanksgiving
• 4th Thursday in
November

19. Precalculate the Day Occurrence
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
ROW_NUMBER()

20. Calculate Primary Days
Third Tuesday of March, every four years
1960
+4
1964
+4
1968
+4

21. Calculate Election Days
First Tuesday of November, every four years
But it’s the first Tuesday AFTER the first Sunday!

22. Wow, yo creo que he
estado usando 2005.¿De dónde salió esa data?
Ese subquery
es un revolú.

23. ¡Métele un GROUP BY!

24. De mala fé, la oposición borró
una cláusula del WHERE.

25. Numbers Table

26. 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91
2 12 22 32 42 52 62 72 82 92
3 13 23 33 43 53 63 73 83 93
4 14 24 34 44 54 64 74 84 94
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95
6 16 26 36 46 56 66 76 86 96
7 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 97
8 18 28 38 48 58 68 78 88 98
9 19 29 39 49 59 69 79 89 99
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

27. Building the Table
Table 1 Table 2 Result Table
1 1 1
1

28. Building the Table
Table 1 Table 2 Result Table
1 1 1
1 1 1
1
1

29. Building the Table
Table 1 Table 2 Result Table
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
…
16
ROW_NUMBER()

30. Example: Saving a Checkbox List

31. Parsing a CSV List of Numbers
1,3,8,22
,1,3,8,22,
,1,
,2,
,3,
,4,
,22,

32. Recap
Provide
Precalculated
Information
Facilitate
Algorithms
Enable
Set-based
Logic